Author: News Team 1

The Pinner Association is getting an increasing number of reports from Pinner residents and businesses about problems with rats in gardens and around waste bins, etc..  We understand that Harrow Council is liaising with the Environment Agency about the control of the number of rats living in and around the River Pinn, and is also advising businesses in central Pinner about the control of these vermin.  The advice from the Harrow Council Environmental Health Team Leader about the action to take should anyone be having problems with rats is contained in their “Pest Control Leaflet” as follows:

A proliferation of cycle racks now adorns Pinner, but are they proving popular? Some seem to prefer the traditional lamp post.

Amendments to Parking Restrictions in Pinner

Following the review of the operation of the revised Pinner Controlled Parking Zone and other parking restrictions changed last year, the Harrow Council Traffic Officers have now published the list of amendments to the parking scheme that are to come into force from 16^th May 2016:
(a) High Street – Loading bay outside Nos. 33/35 High Street, Pinner.
A new loading bay is provided outside Nos. 31 to 33/35 High Street, Pinner, with a length of 13 metres, with an operational time of 7am to 7pm Monday to Saturday. This is necessary to facilitate loading and unloading to businesses at the top end of the High Street. To accommodate the loading bay, the disabled bay previously outside No. 31 to 33/35 has been relocated outside No. 39 High Street, Pinner, and the previous short section of single yellow line between the previous disabled parking bay and permit bays has been removed. The disabled parking bay has a max stay duration of three hours, and operates between 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Saturday.
(b) Bridge Street – existing disabled bays – Max Stay 3 hours.

In keeping with the disabled parking bays in Love Lane and High Street, Pinner, the disabled bays in Bridge Street now have a maximum stay duration of three hours.
This standardises all on-street disabled parking bays provided for shoppers in Pinner,and is consistent with those introduced in other parts of the borough in shopping centre for shoppers and not residential use.
(c) Leighton Avenue – additional Zone A permit bays.Following the previous review of the Pinner CPZ, it was identified that two additional permit bays could be provided in Leighton Avenue, increasing space for two additional cars to park during the operational times of the CPZ. Therefore, additional permit parking bays for one car each are provided outside Nos. 8 & 10, and outside No. 22 Leighton Avenue.
(d) Paines Lane – 11am to 12 noon Monday to Friday waiting restrictions between Nos. 73 and 83 Paines Lane.
Following the introduction of at any time waiting restrictions at the junction of Barrow Point Avenue and Paines Lane, and north of the narrowing near this junction, it was identified that additional restrictions were required to prevent further obstructive parking. Therefore single yellow lines operating from 11am to 12 noon Monday to Friday have been provided (the same time as the Pinner CPZ controlled times) in Paines Lane between the existing double yellow lines and a point 6.00 metres north of a point opposite the common boundary of Nos. 71 and 73 Paines Lane.
(e) Cannon Lane – Pay & Display in service road fronting Nos. 42 to 60 Cannon Lane.
The previous free parking places in the service road fronting Nos. 42 to 60 Cannon Lane have been converted to pay and display parking. The tariff is 10p per 20 minutes with a maximum stay of 2 hours, or a 20 minute free period per vehicle per day in Harrow, in line with all on-street pay and display areas throughout Harrow.

 

Parking in front of Crossovers (Lowered Footways/Driveways)
It is a contravention of the Traffic Management Act 2004 (as amended) to park a vehicle in front of a “Lowered Footway”.   This applies to all Lowered Footways, for example; access drives, pedestrian crossing points, cycle tracks, etc.
We all have a right to travel over a highway, but this general right does not include a right to park. Most parking controls are shown by signs and lines on the highway. But in the case of a lowered footway no signage is necessary.
No part of the vehicle must be in front of the lowered section of footway or kerb.
In the case of lowered footways that provide access to private land (residential or commercial) the enforcement service will only act if the occupier reports the offence and signs a statement, which confirms permission to park was not given.
The contravention is to park in front of a lowered footway, whether or not it can be considered to be an obstruction.
The Civil Enforcement Officer will photograph any vehicle issued with a penalty notice in case of further representation or appeal.
To report an offence, call the Parking Operations Team:

020 8424 1858 – Monday to Saturday, 8am to 5pm
020 8863 5611 – All other times (the Security Officer will contact Parking Operations for you by radio or telephone)

The Pinner Association Open Meeting (AGM) held on 20^th April 

The AGM and Open Meeting of The Pinner Association was held on the evening of Wednesday 20^th April. The speaker was Mr Michael Lockwood, Chief Executive of Harrow Council and the theme of the meeting was “The Future of Pinner”. This topic created great local interest resulting in standing room only in the Pinner village Hall, with approximately 150 people attending the meeting.

Mr Lockwood gave a summary of the current aims and projects of Harrow Council to improve life in the borough and respond to the pressure for housing from a growing population. The main area for regeneration was to be in Wealdstone and it was hoped that the relocation of the Civic Centre to that part of Harrow would improve the vitality, amenity and employment opportunities in that part of the borough. Mr Lockwood also considered that Harrow Town centre is rather “tired” when compared to other neighbouring shopping centres and this would be another area which could benefit from regeneration.
Other parts of the borough such as Pinner had a special character and the Council recognised this and was aware that this should be retained. However, the Government’s policies to allow the conversion of offices, and now other commercial premises, to flats under “permitted development” meant that the Council could not stop this type of redevelopment. Mr Lockwood said that he shared the concerns of the Pinner Association and Pinner residents that this had resulted in too many poorly designed flats being created in the borough. There is a danger of Harrow borough becoming a dormitory area without sufficient local employment opportunities for Harrow residents.   2,000 jobs had already been lost in Harrow due to the conversion of offices to flats, and local business were losing trade.   Mr Lockwood said that Harrow Council were to continue to lobby the Government to get an exemption for Harrow borough from such permitted development of flats from commercial property.
The strong opposition from Pinner, being over 90% of the responses received to the consultation, had resulted in the major changes to reduce or eliminate the fees required in the new “Events Policy” had been example of the lively community spirit in Pinner. Similarly, Pinner Library had been retained and was to be refurbished in the near future.
Mr Lockwood proceeded to answer numerous questions from the floor. Many of these focussed on the proposal by Harrow Council to build housing for private let on the Waxwell Lane car park. Mr Lockwood replied that already informal consultations had taken place with some stakeholders and that Waxwell Lane residents had already been invited to be considered for inclusion in a “Stakeholders Reference Group”. He stressed that no decision had yet been taken as to whether the car park was to be redeveloped, and if so whether some car parking provision would be maintained. Questioners stressed the need for more, not less, car parking in Pinner, particularly when the many new flats being constructed without their own parking provision are occupied.
Mr Lockwood explained that the projected increase in the population of Harrow required a significant amount of new housing to be constructed and that there was a balance to be struck between providing the necessary new dwellings and the retention of the green open spaces enjoyed by residents.

Questioners mentioned the difficulty of contacting any responsible person at Harrow Council when a problem had occurred. Mr Lockwood suggested that where possible residents use a “My Harrow” account to report problems on-line, but acknowledged that at times the response from council officers had fallen short of the standard that he would like to be provided. He was instigating a half day training for all the staff at Harrow Council to improve their skills in providing a respectful response to all enquiries from the public.
Among other topics the poor street cleaning in Pinner was raised, to which Mr Lockwood responded that that a dedicated street sweeper had now been allocated to central Pinner, and the residential roads were to be on a more frequent four weekly cleaning schedule.

At the AGM the Pinner Association elected a “new” Chairman to succeed Bruce Watson, who had served for part of the past year as Acting Chairman. Warwick Hillman had been the Chairman of The Pinner Association many years previously and he was willing to be elected to fill that position for one year only to concentrate the minds of all the Pinner Association members of the need to revitalise the committee, some of whom had served for many years. An appeal was made for younger members to come forward to become future active committee members in order to prevent The Pinner Association no longer being the vibrant and successful residents’ amenity society it has traditionally been.

Despite the Arctic like climate on the day, a good crowd assembled to welcome St George and the Mayor of Harrow on Sunday 24 April. Some of the wheelbarrow race participants even opted for shirtsleeve order to enliven the contest. This was as ‘hotly’ contested as ever. There was Morris Dancing by the Merrydowners and jousting by the Herga Mummers. This entertaining package was put together by Pinner Rotary.

“Events in Harrow Policy” to Charge for the Use of Parks, Open Spaces and Adopted Harrow Council Highways for Events:

Harrow Council published a draft “Events Policy” in October 2015, in which charges were to be introduced for anyone wishing to use council owned parks, open spaces or adopted highways for public or private events. In the draft document a small discount of 20% only in the sizable fees and charges payable was to be granted to charities and community organisations, which, with the requirement also for large deposits, would have made arranging many traditional community events financially unviable. The result of these proposed charges would not as intended have raised revenue for the Council. They would simply have ended many much enjoyed community events.

Many community groups and others responded to the consultation on this proposed new policy, with 95% of the responses coming from the Pinner area where many and varied community events are held every year. After the consultation Harrow Council has rewritten their “Events Policy” and this revised policy was adopted at the Harrow Council Cabinet meeting on the 18th of February 2016.

The Pinner Association welcomes the revisions to the Harrow Council Events Policy to increase the discount in the new hire and other fees to 80% for charities and community groups holding events in parks, open spaces or adopted streets, and the removal of a requirement for large deposits from such organisations. We are particularly pleased that notable annual occasions such as the Remembrance Sunday Services are to be exempt from charges. The change in the definition of “small event” to allow this category to cover events with up to 500 persons attending will assist many community groups in continuing to run their traditional events, and may encourage the organisation of new types of community events in the borough.

However, we are still concerned that the detailed and legalistically worded application form required for all but “small” events may be a disincentive to some community groups to organise larger scale events. There are also many very small activities organised every year by the local places of worship and other community groups and these may well cease if these are classed as “events” and therefore disproportionately onerous paperwork is required.   Only time will tell if this is the case.

 

 

Please see the statement below from Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley concerning today’s Brussels incident:

 “Our thoughts are with the people of Brussels following this morning’s horrific attacks.
“As a precaution forces across the UK have increased policing presence at key locations, including transport hubs, to protect the public and provide reassurance. This is not in relation to any specific information or intelligence.
“In London specifically, the Metropolitan Police Service has mobilised additional officers, who will carry out highly visible patrols at key locations around the Capital including the transport network. The number of officers deployed will be regularly assessed. These additional officers are deployed as part of reassurance measures.
“The police presence across London and the rest of the UK is constantly under review.
“We are in close liaison with the Belgium authorities and will continue to monitor the situation.
“The threat to the UK from international terrorism remains at severe as it has been since August 2014, meaning an attack is highly likely.
“We urge the public and businesses to be alert but not alarmed and report anything suspicious to the confidential Anti-Terrorist Hotline on 0800 789 321. In an emergency always call 999.”

The Spring 2016 Edition of “Newsforum” is at this link – http://www.londonforum.org.uk/newsforum/newsforum72.pdf

Note the praise for the PA website on page 7 and a report on our opposition to the LBH “Events Policy” on page 17. (Since overtaken by modified Council proposals}

 Also interesting information about the use of social media by civic societies.